Chartley Castle lies in ruins to the north of the village of Stowe-by-Chartley in Staffordshire, between Stafford and Uttoxeter (grid reference SK010285 ). Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned on the estate in 1585. The remains of the castle and associated earthworks are a Scheduled Monument, the site having been protected since 1925. [1] The castle itself is a Grade II* listed building [2]
The motte and bailey castle was built by one of the early Earls of Chester, about 1100, as a safe stop-over for their journeys to places such as Tutbury. It was rebuilt in 1220 by Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester, who died in 1232. It then passed by marriage to William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby. It remained in the Ferrers family for more than 200 years, and in 1453, passed to Walter Devereux, through his wife Anne de Ferrers, the Ferrers heiress. Through his wife, Walter also became jure uxoris Baron Ferrers of Chartley in 1461, and was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The castle was then abandoned as a residence, and Chartley Manor, a moated and battlemented timber mansion, was built nearby. Mary, Queen of Scots was a prisoner in this manor house. It was destroyed by fire in 1781. [3] What is now known as Chartley Manor was in fact known as "Chartley Manor Farm" until the 1980s.
Substantial remains are still present today, including a rare cylindrical keep, a curtain wall flanked by two half-round towers, a twin-towered gatehouse and an angled tower. A survey conducted in the nineteenth century identified five towers ranging from 35 to 41 feet external diameter, and the keep, 50 feet in diameter. [4] One author has noted similarities of the plan to Montlhery near Paris, France, which Ranulph de Blondeville may have been familiar with. [5] M.W. Thompson noted numerous architectural similarities between Chartley, Bolingbroke Castle, Lincolnshire and also Beeston Castle in Cheshire, all thought to have been built under de Blondeville. [6]
When Chartley Manor belonged to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex it became one of the last places of imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots. Her jailor Amias Paulet came from Tutbury Castle to view the manor in September 1585 and saw the house was just big enough to accommodate both his and the queen's households, "somewhat straitly." Chartley manor was preferred over alternatives because the house had a deep moat, though the moat was quite narrow in places. The moat also helped security because the queen's laundry could be washed without her maids leaving the house. [7] Paulet wrote that the way the Manor was "found to stand so low and environed with water" was not likely to please Mary (she being sensitive to damp environments). [8]
Paulet prepared to move the queen the twelve miles from Tutbury before Christmas 1585, and decided to avoid going through the busy market town of Uttoxeter. [9] Mary spent almost a year at Chartley. In August 1586 Francis Walsingham made a plan to arrest Mary and move her from Chartley by having Paulet pretend to take her hunting, while the leading members of her household were arrested and her papers seized. Many of servants would be kept at Chartley and she would be taken to another house. Acting on the Babington Plot, Mary was arrested on 11 August 1586 while out riding and hunting with a crossbow, with her secretaries Claude Nau and Gilbert Curle, Bastian Pagez, her doctor Dominique Bourgoing and others. They were surprised by armed soldiers who took them to Tixall. [10]
Walsingham wrote to Paulet from Windsor Castle on 25 August that Elizabeth ordered that Mary should not leave Tixall. However, on that day, Paulet brought Mary back to Chartley. [11] Claude Nau, Gilbert Curle, and the cipher clerk Jérôme Pasquier were arrested and questioned about Mary's involvement in the Babington Plot. [12] On 25 September 1586 Mary was removed to the strong castle of Fotheringay in Northamptonshire where she was beheaded on 8 February 1587. [13]
The Babington Plot was a plan in 1586 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, a Protestant, and put Mary, Queen of Scots, her Catholic cousin, on the English throne. It led to Mary's execution, a result of a letter sent by Mary in which she consented to the assassination of Elizabeth.
Tutbury is a village and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Burton upon Trent and 20 miles (32 km) south of the Peak District. The village has a population of about 3,076 residents. It adjoins Hatton to the north on the Staffordshire–Derbyshire border.
Sir Amias Paulet of Hinton St. George, Somerset, was an English diplomat, Governor of Jersey, and the gaoler for a period of Mary, Queen of Scots.
William III de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby of Chartley Castle in Staffordshire, was an English nobleman and major landowner, unable through illness to take much part in national affairs. From his two marriages, he left numerous children who married into noble and royal families of England, France, Scotland and Wales.
Tutbury Castle is a largely ruined medieval castle at Tutbury, Staffordshire, England, in the ownership of the Duchy of Lancaster and hence currently of King Charles III. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. People who have stayed in the castle include Eleanor of Aquitaine and Mary, Queen of Scots, who was a prisoner there.
Sir William Wade was an English statesman and diplomat, and Lieutenant of the Tower of London.
Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester and 1st Earl of Lincoln, known in some references as the 4th Earl of Chester, was one of the "old school" of Anglo-Norman barons whose loyalty to the Angevin dynasty was consistent but contingent on the receipt of lucrative favours. He has been described as "almost the last relic of the great feudal aristocracy of the Conquest".
Gilbert Gifford was a double agent who worked for Sir Francis Walsingham and played a role in the uncovering of the Babington Plot. Shortly before his death in Paris, he was ordained as a Catholic priest in Rheims. His true allegiances, whether to Queen Elizabeth I or to Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Catholic cause – are unclear.
Tixall Gatehouse is a 16th-century gatehouse situated at Tixall, near Stafford, Staffordshire and is all that remains of Tixall Hall which was demolished in 1927. The gatehouse is a Grade I listed building. Tixall was used as a prison for Mary, Queen of Scots for two weeks in 1586.
Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby (1239–1279) was an English nobleman.
Sir Hugh Paulet of Hinton St George in Somerset, was an English military commander and Governor of Jersey.
Bastian Pagez was a French servant and musician at the court of Mary, Queen of Scots. He devised part of the entertainment at the baptism of Prince James at Stirling Castle in 1566. When Mary was exiled in England, Bastian and his family continued in her service. The 19th-century historian Agnes Strickland considered his court role as equivalent to the English Master of the Revels; in England he was Mary's chamber valet and designed her embroidery patterns.
Jane, Janet, or Jean Kennedy was a companion of Mary, Queen of Scots, during her captivity in England.
Sir Henry Cavendish (1550–1616) was the eldest son of the Tudor courtier William Cavendish, and Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, known as "Bess of Hardwick". He served in the Netherlands as a captain in 1578, and was the MP for Derbyshire five times, but did not participate greatly in politics. Cavendish was also a notorious libertine, and was disinherited by his mother, who held his wardship after his father's death. After his mother's death in 1608 Cavendish inherited the Chatsworth estate, but he sold it to his brother William, who later became the 1st Earl of Devonshire, in the following year. He had a number of illegitimate children, but no legitimate heirs.
Andrew Melville of Garvock was a Scottish courtier and servant of Mary, Queen of Scots.
The Ferrers family were a noble Anglo-Norman family that crossed to England with the Norman Conquest and gave rise to a line that would hold the Earldom of Derby for six generations before losing it in rebellion. They also gave rise to several lines that held English peerages, the longest-living going extinct in the male line in the 15th century, as well as a Norman branch of the family that persisted into the 13th century. A French line persisted into the 16th century.
Elizabeth or Bess Pierrepont (1568–1648) was a gentlewoman in household of Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary hoped that she could be trained to join the household of Queen Elizabeth, and prevented her marrying as her father wished.
Gilbert Curle or Curll was a Scottish secretary who served Mary, Queen of Scots during her captivity in England. He married Barbara Mowbray, one of three sisters serving Mary.
Dominique Bourgoing was a French physician in the household of Mary, Queen of Scots. He is notable as the author of an influential account of Mary's captivity and execution.
Jérôme Pasquier was a French servant of Mary, Queen of Scots, involved in writing and deciphering coded letters.
